Building unit



Feb; 26, 1963 Y. LAURENDEAU BUILDING UNIT Filed June 12, 1961 IN VENTORrm LAURE/VDfAU A GENT United States Patent Ofifice 3,078,521 PatentedFeb. 26, 1963 3,078,521 BUILDING UNIT Yvon Laurendeau, RR 3,Louiseville, Quebec, Canada Filed June 12, 1961, Ser. No. 116,335 Claimspriority, application Canada June 18, 1960 1 Claim. (Cl. 20-5) Thepresent invention relates to a building unit and more particularly to apre-fabricated unit for use in the construction of floors, roofs, andwalls.

The building unit in accordance with the present invention is animprovement over the unit illustrated and described in the CanadianPatent 542,053 dated June 11, 1957, by William H. Willatts and Alfred H.Cornwall.

The building units in accordance with this patent and in accordance withthe present invention serve as means for molding concrete in theconstruction of floors, roofs, or walls, or directly as woodenreinforcement for floors, roofs or walls. The building unit inaccordance with Canadian Patent 542,053 is essentially constituted by aseries of trough-like elements arranged side by side and consisting ofplanks or boards disposed in two separate parallel planes, arranged inspaced and staggered relationship and united two by two by divergingboards, the unit being reinforced by end members disposed transverselyto the unit. It should be noted that, in the building unit in accordancewith this patent nailing of the diverging boards to the horizontalboards is required along the lower as well as the upper edges of saiddiverging boards and it is also necessary to use specially shaped lowerboards or battens. This increases the cost of fabricating the unit inaccordance with this patent.

The general object of the present invention resides in the provision ofa building unit of the character described which is of simplified andrelatively low cost construction because the time required for itsconstruction is considerably decreased and the number of separateelements used is also decreased.

Another object of the invention resides in the provision of a buildingunit of the character described which has a better appearance for thoseuses of the unit wherein the latter remains visible or which confers abetter appearance to the visible parts of floors, roofs or walls moldedwith the unit of the invention.

Another important object of the invention resides in the provision of aunit of the character described which is more rigid and has greaterresistance to stresses and loading.

The foregoing and other objects of the present invention will becomemore apparent during the following disclosure and by referring to theannexed drawings, in which:

FIGURE 1 is a perspective view of a portion of a building unit inaccordance with the invention;

FIGURE 2 is a cross section;

FIGURE 3 is a partial longitudinal section of one end of the unit; and

FIGURE 4 is a cross section of the apparatus used for forming the troughof laminated wood.

In the drawings, the same reference characters indicate the sameelements.

The unit in accordance with the invention comprises a series oftrough-like elements 1 made of laminated woo-d and longitudinallydisposed side by side in equally spaced and parallel relationship. Eachtrough-like element 1 has a generally V-shaped cross-section with acurved bottom 2 and fiat diverging sides 3. Each troughlike element 1consists of a plurality of wood laminations glued or cemented togetherand bent in accordance with the conventional technique for thefabrication of laminated wood in sheet form. The upper longitudinaledges 4 of each trough 1 is cut at right angles with respect to the flatsides 3 and engages a groove or rabbet 5 made in the longitudinal edgesof boards 6 which extends over the entire length of the trough-likeelements 1 and are disposed in a common plane. There is one board 6between each pair of contiguous troughs 1. The edges 4 of thetrough-like elements 1 are nailed to boards 6 by nail 7. The edges 4 mayalso be glued within the grooves 5.

Each unit may have one or several troughs 1. In the drawings, three suchtroughs are shown united two by two by the boards 6.

Boards 8 at the exterior of the unit have a width of about half thewidth of the boards 6 and are provided with a longitudinal groove 9 forreceiving a tongue or lath 10 which serves as a junction with theexterior board 8 of a contiguous building unit.

Each unit is moreover provided with reinforcing transversely disposedmembers longitudinally spaced of the unit. There is an end reinforcingmember at each end of the unit which is constituted by an endreinforcing board 11 disposed in a plane perpendicular to the boards 6and 3 and provided at its inner face with a groove 12 having a shapecorresponding to the cross-sectional shape of the trough 1 in order toreceive the end edge of said trough. The boards 6 and 8 protrudeslightly from the end of the trough 1 and are nailed by nails 13- on topof the end board 11 as indicated in FIGURE 3. The board 11 is wider thanthe height of the trough in order to protrude downwardly from the curvedbottom 2 of the trough 1, this bottom 2 being nailed to the board 11 bynails 14.

The reinforcing members may also include intermediate boards 15 alsoperpendicular to the boards 6 and 8. The boards 15 are cut out to formnotches, the edges 16 of which are in contact with the exterior surfaceof the trough 1 and the cut out pieces 17, of slightly decreaseddimensions, are inserted within the trough 1 in order to make contactwith the inside of the trough in the plane of boards 15. Boards 15 andpieces 17 are secured to the trough 1 by nails 18 and the upper marginalportion of boards 15 is secured to the boards 6 and 8 by nails 19.

FIGURE 4 shows a section of an apparatus for fabricating the trough 1. Abox 20 comprising a bottom 21 and side walls 22 is provided insidethereof with a metal mold 23, the cross-sectional shape of whichcorresponds to the exterior shape of trough 1. Mold 23 is secured to andis supported by a metal channel 24 having reinforcing webs 25. Theapparatus is completed by a compression block 26 having an exteriorsurface 27 of a cross-sectional shape corresponding to the interiorshape of trough 1. Block 26 has a sliding fit with the walls 22 and ispressed by cover 28, overlying block 26 and secured by bolts 29,anchored in walls 22 of box 20, and nuts 30.

In order to make a series of troughs 1, the required number of woodlaminations for one trough, previously coated with an adhesive, areplaced directly within the mold 23 and a spacing block 31 is thendisposed within the top lamination, then another set of wood laminationsis disposed over the lowermost block 31 and thus several sets oflaminations and spacer blocks 31 may be disposed in the box. Each spacerblock 31 has lower and upper surfaces conforming to the interior andexterior of the curved bottom of the trough for the building unit. Theassembly is then compressed by the compression block 26 by means ofcover 28, bolts 29 and nuts 30. The resultant assembly may then beplaced in an oven for accelerating the curing of the adhesive inconventional manner.

While a preferred embodiment in accordance with the present inventionhas been illustrated and described, it is understood that variousmodifications may be etfected without departing from the spirit andscope of the annexed claim.

What I claim is:

A building unit comprising pre-molded troughs disposed side by side andeach made of laminated Wood having a generally V-shaped cross-sectionwith a curved bottom and fiat diverging sides, spaced parallel boardsdisposed in a common plane and extending the entire length of thetroughs and secured to the respective edges of said troughs at thelongitudinal sides thereof, the longitudinal sides of said boards beingrabbeted for receiving the edges of said troughs, and reinforcingmembers transversely disposed with respect to said trough and securedthereto and to said boards, said reinforcing members beinglongitudinally spaced along said troughs and including reinforcingmembers at each end of said unit, each consisting of a terminal boardperpendicular to said first named boards and provided at its inner facewith grooves each having a shape corresponding to the cross sectionalshape of said troughs, the end edges of said troughs being insertedwithin said grooves, said first named boards protruding from the ends ofsaid troughs and overlying said terminal reinforcing boards, saidreinforcing members further including reinforcing members disposedintermediate the ends of said unit and constituted by intermediateboards parallel to said terminal reinforcing boards and cut out to formnotches, the edges of which are in contact with the exterior face ofsaid troughs, and the cut out parts of which are inserted within and arein contact with the internal face of said troughs in a plane common tosaid intermediate boards, these intermediate boards being secured to theunderside of said first named boards and to the bottom of said troughs.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS2,089,865 Voss Aug. 10, 1937 2,220,596 Bernhardt Nov. 5, 1940 2,309,389Goodman Jan. 26, 1943 2,335,836 Zimmerman Nov. 30, 1943 2,397,388Troedsson Mar. 26, 1946 2,444,133 Great June 29, 1948 2,615,211 GardnerGet. 28, 1952 2,829,403 Willatts Apr. 8, 1958

